[OKC] New Polling Method Reveals Surprising Agreement among Climate Scientists

[Shauna Struby]

FOR RELEASE: April 10, 2012

New Polling Method Reveals Surprising Agreement among Scientists about
Climate Risk

San Francisco, California - April 10, 2012 - 

Scientists often agree on major issues, but this sometimes gets overlooked
during ongoing scientific debates. "In the context of climate change, the
perception of scientific disagreement, if exaggerated, is likely to inhibit
effective action," according to Peter Kriss, the director of research of a
new online poll of scientists called Vision Prize.

Vision Prizes uses a new polling method, published in the journal Science by
MIT professor Drazen Prelec, to encourage thoughtful answers, especially
with regard to predicting the beliefs of others. "What makes our new poll
unique is that it identifies 'surprisingly common' points of agreement among
climate scientists," says Kriss. It does this by asking expert participants
to give not only their own beliefs, but also to predict the views of their
scientific colleagues.

View expert poll results released today: http://visionprize.com/results

"For decision makers, investors and the general public, overestimating the
degree of scientific disagreement is likely to lead to poorer decisions. Our
first poll results, released today, show that climate experts agree on these
complex issues even more than they expect. If the experts themselves
overestimate their disagreements, it is hard to imagine that non-experts
fully appreciate how much scientists do agree on these important questions,"
says Kriss. Vision Prize aims to close this gap between beliefs about the
views of scientists and the actual views of scientists.

"We all recognize the need to do science communication, but we still seem to
struggle to do this well," says Jonathan Foley, Director of the University
of Minnesota Institute on the Environment. "As a new approach to this
problem, Vision Prize deserves our attention."

 "Vision Prize: Online Poll of Scientists About Climate Risk" is an
impartial and independent research platform for incentivized polling of
experts. The project currently involves more than 170 experts from
institutions around the world. Vision Prize is affiliated with researchers
at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Minnesota Institute on
the Environment. The research program is strictly nonpartisan - Vision Prize
is not an advocacy organization.

FAQ: http://visionprize.com/faq

Contact: info at visionprize.com

 

Vision Prize: Online Poll of Scientists About Climate Risk

Box 7775 #20915 San Francisco, California USA 94120 |
<http://visionprize.com/> http://visionprize.com

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